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Chapter II: 1940

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JANUARY

• MON 1 JAN 1940
  Tenth Naval District with headquarters at San Juan, Puerto Rico, is established, Commander Reuben L. Walker is first commandant (see 26 February).
  
  U.S. freighter City of Flint, her odyssey almost at an end, is damaged in collision with British steamship Baron Blytheswood. Repairs to City of Flint will keep her at Narvik, Norway, for another six days.
  
  U.S. freighter Exeter is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities.
  
  Uruguayan government interns German freighter Tacoma at Montevideo as an auxiliary war vessel.
  
  Charles Edison of New Jersey becomes Secretary of the Navy; he had been Acting Secretary since the death of Claude A. Swanson on 7 July 1939.
  
  Department of State releases statement to press telling of the delivery of "vigorous protest" (dated 27 December 1939) to the British Foreign Office concerning the British removing and censoring U.S. mail from British and U.S. and neutral ships.